Topic 12: Using Animals to Help Us Learn PDF

 Topic 12: Using Animals to Help us Learn learning, communication, association, and When you have completed this topic, you will: reasoning. Understand why animals may play a Can animals help us to acquir...

 Topic 12: Using Animals to Help us Learn learning, communication, association, and When you have completed this topic, you will: reasoning. Understand why animals may play a Can animals help us to acquire knowledge? Of critical role in helping young children course, they can, either through providing us acquire basic cognitive skills with relevant experiences or by helping with our Be familiar with a range of skills and formal educational processes. knowledge that can be acquired through childhood interactions with animals Be aware of controversies associated with using animals for teaching purposes, particularly in the life sciences Have reflected on what we might learn from keeping wild animals in captivity and whether this justifies their confinement In our last topic we investigated the use of animals in science, establishing that Animals as educational aids for young children experiments involving animals have taught us, as a species, much about ourselves and about To begin this topic, think back to an earlier topic the natural world. This is not the only way in in which we met the ecological philosopher Paul which animals play an important role in Shepard and considered his theory, which knowledge acquisition. They also play critical proposes that animals may be absolutely critical roles during child and adult development. In this in human cognitive development. Shepard topic we will consider some of the ways in which noticed that all human societies have an we use animals to learn about our world. extensive inventory of their natural environment, and he proposed that category making based What is knowledge? on animals was at the centre of the evolution of Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English the human mind. In fact, according to Shepard, Dictionary as: the human cognitive system is absolutely dependent on the ability to identify and (i) expertise and skills acquired by a person categorise objects. He went so far as to argue through experience or education; the theoretical that this is why the human brain developed as it or practical understanding of a subject, did, because it was enormously advantageous (ii) what is known in a particular field or in for our species to be able to think about total; facts and information or relationships between natural objects (Shepard, 1978). Children from all cultures learn to (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by recognise and categorise natural objects in just experience of a fact or situation. their second year of life. This tendency to While these definitions are diverse and there is animalise the world is thought to be part of the no single agreed definition of knowledge, most mental apparatus that lies beneath language agree that knowledge acquisition involves acquisition and cognitive development. complex cognitive processes: perception, Recently, modern psychologists have also alphabet, you’ll quickly discover how important begun to emphasise the importance of animals animal images are to this process. On many sites in the cognitive and psychological development even the letter X is represented by an animal – of children, a factor that has been largely the fox. This makes no sense at all, but it shows ignored in the past. Cognitive psychologist Gail very nicely how powerful animal metaphors can Melson, for example, argues that children are be. And, what about shows like Sesame Street? born with a “core domain of knowledge about If you have ever watched children's shows on living things” which she calls the child’s naive television you will have seen dozens of clear biology. Even in early infancy children are examples of animals, or animal-like characters, capable of distinguishing between living and helping children learn by association. Abstract non-living objects. According to Melson, we use concepts like letters, and relative values like this naïve biology as a core reference point for larger, smaller, heavier and smarter, only make educating infants about the world (Melson, sense in relation to concrete objects so these 2005). form the foundations of our cognitive system. In addition, because children seem to have a natural affinity for animals, perhaps because of biophilia, they promote the attention and enthusiasm that help children learn higher-level cognitive skills. Animals are not only critical in terms of getting the education process underway in human infants, they also help children move from learning really basic concepts to the far more sophisticated understanding of the world we expect them to have by the time they are just a few years older. Animals feature prominently in picture books for children, although the information they convey is often very inaccurate. A teacher named Stuart Marriott (1991) collected over one thousand picture books and studied how the natural world was presented. He concluded that book makers tend to transform and domesticate animals and their habitats in ways that provide readers with very misleading images and impressions. Animals in books are generally very friendly and are This makes sense given some of the evidence transformed to possess human features we spoke about in earlier topics. Remember that including facial features, voices, and artefacts animal-based concepts are used by young like clothes. They are often very childlike. Wild infants to describe those things that are most animals feature rarely and, when they do, they important to them in their social environment – tend to be small species, things like squirrels or their enemies, friends and family members. hedgehogs, rather than larger and less Children call someone a pig to differentiate attractive species like hyena or buzzards. An them from someone who is lamb-like, and they exception is with bears and lions, but even these describe people as chickens, goats, snakes, and are generally small, cuddly and friendly and they so forth. They also use animal names as are rarely depicted in their natural reference points for learning totally abstract environments. Instead of living in Africa and symbols like letters of the alphabet. If you do a killing gazelle to survive, a lion in a picture book quick Google search on how to learn the English is likely to be found living in a cottage in the This is not so surprising because, of course, English countryside and taking tea with her children can only communicate with animals friends. What’s that about? non-verbally and must learn to interpret their behaviour. Most very young children strike up conversations with their pets and toddlers and preschoolers often seem unaware that their pets are not responding. Even adults often talk to pets as if they have a two-way conversation going, using a special language that scientists call motherese and pausing between sentences as if they are waiting for a verbal response. If you don’t believe this, try listening to how you talk to your own pets? Do you ask them in a high happy voice how their day has been and then wait for a response? Many people do. By This is not to say that picture books cannot about 4 years of age, however, children serve valid educational purposes. Marriott recognise that their pets are not going to (1991) describes books that deal quite answer verbally, so they get better at effectively with common childhood traumas, like understanding nonverbal communication. This the introduction of a new baby, shyness, might help them learn to distinguish the bedwetting, or death of a loved one, and he also communication abilities of different human describes books that deal with controversial partners. issues such as animal consumption, captivity, and environmental degradation. In general, however, the number of picture books presenting animals in realistic ways is very small. Nearly all the animals depicted are anthropomorphised to a very large extent and nearly all are dislocated from their natural habitats. What do these books therefore teach our children? The answer to this question is unknown, but Marriott suggests that there is a need for many more books that contribute more accurate information as our children socially construct their understanding of the natural Many parents purchase pets for their children in world. the hope that the pet will encourage the urge to nurture in the children and provide them with Parents also use real animals, particularly pet the experience of having something dependent animals, to teach children about social on them while they are still dependent on their responsibility and compassion for others. parents. This phenomenon seems to be unique Several studies have shown that children who to Western societies, perhaps because we now live with pets show greater emotional consider it unacceptable for older children to sensitivity. They tend to express more empathy look after younger children as part of their day- and are more skilled at interpreting how others to-day activities. This contrasts with some feel based on behaviour, than children without eastern and African societies, and Western pets (Daly & Morton, 2006; Vidovic et al., societies of days gone by, when older children 1999). It doesn’t have to be a typical fluffy pet were often totally responsible for the wellbeing either – spiders work just as well as dogs and of their younger siblings while their parents cats if they are used correctly. were working or engaged in other activities. Most studies show a gender bias in nurturing needed for young brains to work effectively. activities, with girls being more likely to engage Melson (2005) argues that, because animals are in these activities than boys. Providing children predictably unpredictable, they often do things with pets tends to eliminate the gender bias that challenge well-worn beliefs. Even the associated with caring for younger siblings, expectation that something unexpected might however; perhaps because boys are able to care happen is enough to keep many school children for and nurture pets without being ridiculed by engaged in the educational process. their friends (Vidovic et al., 1999). Animals not only facilitate learning generally, but of course can specifically teach us a great deal about the biological world. We all benefit from knowing how bodily systems operate and we seem to learn this information better if we have had experiences with pets as children. Melson (2005) reports an exploratory study from Japan that shows that children who have pets gain biological understanding at a rate far greater than their non-pet owning counterparts. The experience of owning a pet, even something simple like a goldfish, enabled the children to Another thing children might learn from pets is link pet care with consequences for the animal about life and death. A child’s first encounter – they were applying cause-and-effect with the concept of death as opposed to life reasoning. often occurs when the family (or classroom) pet passes away. This can be traumatic, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, it can be a particularly important developmental lesson for preschoolers whose logic likens death to sleep and allows for the dead to ‘wake up’. Young children often associate ‘bad’ things with death. Therefore, experiencing a pet’s death is one way to explain the difference between life and death and experience the emotions that resonate throughout the experience, without the world coming to an end. In days gone by, we were all Numerous articles and books have been written much more familiar with death and it wasn’t the about the use of animals in life sciences big deal that it is today. There are probably education in secondary schools and even many young adults alive today who don’t have universities. Animals have been used in any direct experience with human death. This classrooms worldwide for generations as a would have been unheard of 100 years ago. means of providing children with hands-on Animals as educational aids for older children experiences in the biological structures of animals, either for their own sake or for learning Animals are not only useful as ‘teachers’ within about humans. Living and dead animals are also the home environment. If you should ever used to teach children about the basic decide to become a teacher, one of the things requirements of animals. Many of the learning you’ll learn is that animals can be used to teach opportunities that parents are seeking for their children about practically anything. When children when they purchase a pet can be children interact with animals they tend to achieved in the school system. At a higher level, engage emotionally, and this is exactly what is animals are used for training medical and What can we learn from captive wild animals? veterinary students at a university level. So far, the animals we have discussed as being Are hands-on experiences with the internal important in human education have been structures of animals necessary for students primarily make-believe (as in Sesame Street), or training for medical or veterinary professions? domesticated (as in classroom and home-based There has actually been a recent trend away pets). In the case of domesticated animals, a from the use of animals as teaching tools in case can be made for arguing that the veterinary science in particular. Veterinary relationship we have with these animals is one medicine in the United Kingdom is now taught of mutualism - we get knowledge and they get entirely using alternative teaching methods and well cared for at least until we decide to kill it appears to be heading in the same direction them, humanely. But what of the use of wild in other developed countries. As with science in animals in educational programs? Is it general, those using animals in education are acceptable to keep animals in captivity encouraged to find alternatives to animal use, to indefinitely, so that they can be studied and use fewer animals and to refine their practices participate in our education? Not surprisingly, so that any animals that are used are treated this is a big issue for modern zoos. well. Some of the alternatives to the use of More than 30 years ago, a philosopher called animals as educational tools in a secondary and Dale Jamieson wrote a really scathing paper tertiary science setting include films and video, about zoos. In this paper, Jamieson argued that models, simulations, non-animal substrates for the continued existence of zoos was impossible teaching suturing and other similar skills, clinical to justify. Rather than summarizing the paper for work with animals in veterinary surgeries, in you here, we are going to let you read it for vitro technology, and student self- yourself. It isn’t very long, and we’ve made it experimentation (e.g., riding a bike and tracking available through the LMS site. You should read heart rate and blood pressure). through it now and make sure you can answer the following questions: 1. What is Jamieson’s main moral argument against zoos? 2. How might we determine how animals are coping in captive environments? 3. Jamieson lists four main reasons for maintaining zoos: amusement, education, opportunities for scientific research, and help in preserving the species. Which one of these four functions do you think zoos mostly How do you feel about the use of these perform? For each reason, explain why alternatives? If your pet was ill and required Jamieson thinks it is not sufficient to surgery, would you feel comfortable knowing justify keeping wild animals in captivity. that your newly graduated veterinarian had 4. Do you agree or disagree with never before performed surgery on a ‘real’ Jamieson’s reasoning? For example, do animal? It might surprise you that analysis by you agree that people learn very little employers of students’ veterinary practice skills from attending zoos? has shown that those who train without using Do you agree with Jamieson’s conclusion, that animals are just as capable as those who train people learn very little from attending zoos and, with animals (Greenfield et al.,1995). also, that what they mostly learn is “a false sense of our place in the natural order”? Think about your own visits to zoos in the past, were they prevention, treatment and cure of disease. They about education or entertainment and is your provide children with essential information for pleasure or your acquisition of knowledge a development, with pets in particular playing a sufficient reason for keeping wild animals in critical role in the development of cognitive and captivity? emotional intelligence and in children’s developing understanding of death. We also Another issue you might like to think about is learn from animals in many other weird and whether we should be visiting other countries to wonderful ways that you probably cannot even observe their wildlife. Hundreds of people travel imagine. Perhaps we should finish this topic to remote areas of Africa annually to catch a with the thought that we should all be eternally glimpse of wild animals. This is a life-changing grateful for all the sacrifices animals have made experience for many people so it could easily be for us, either knowingly or, more often, argued that the visits serve an important unknowingly. Instead of disregarding animals educational function. They also bring money into and treating them poorly we should perhaps local communities, whose residents are then hold them in the highest regard. You might more motivated to protect the animals. This all recall from our very first tutorial that this is what sounds terrific, but what of the animals that are Christien Meindertsma concluded about pigs. observed? Is the awesome experience we have, Given all they do for us, why aren’t they more sufficient to justify interrupting their ‘natural’ highly regarded and, therefore, treated like lives? These are ethical issues that tend to make kings and queens? your head hurt when you think about them. We will deal with them in some detail later in the subject, but feel free to do some thinking and talking in the meantime so you’ll be well prepared. Summary So, what do you need to take away from this topic? First, you need to understand that animals have been and continue to be very important educational tools for humans, across the developmental lifespan. They provide us with all kinds of important information, about ourselves, our evolution and history, our physical environments, and other environments, and they provide us with information about other animals, which we can then use to help understand and manage them. They help us to learn about being human and provide us with information relevant to the understanding,  References and/or supplementary resources: Daly, B., & Morton, L. (2006). An investigation of human-animal interactions and empathy as related to pet preference, ownership, attachment, and attitudes in children. Anthrozoös, 19(2), 113- 127. Greenfield, C. L., Johnson, A. L., Schaeffer, D. J., & Hungerford, L. L. (1995). Comparison of surgical skills of veterinary students trained using models or live animals. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 206, 1840–1845. Jamieson, D. (1985). Against zoos. In Peter Singer (Ed.), In defense of animals, pp. 108-117. Basil Blackwell. Marriott, S. (1991). Picture books in the primary school classroom. Paul Chapman Publishing. Melson, G. (2005). Why the wild things are: Animals in the lives of children. Harvard University Press. Shepard, P. (1978). Thinking animals: Animals and the development of human intelligence. Viking Press. Vidovic, V. V., Stetic, V. V., & Bratko, D. (1999). Pet ownership, type of pet and socio-emotional development of school children. Anthrozoös, 12(4), 211-217.